For at least the third time this season, the Boston Bruins will play a team that’s retiring a sweater number of a former great of its franchise when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes tomorrow night at RBC Center.

But this time, the Bruins will have a greater interest in the festivities. Glen Wesley, whose No. 2 will be raised to the rafters of the ‘Canes’ home prior to the game, spent seven seasons in a Bruins uniform before leaving for Hartford prior to the 1994-95 season.

Beyond that, one Bruins player has even more of a sentimental connection to Wesley. Boston defenseman Aaron Ward won the third Stanley Cup of his career skating alongside Wesley in ‘Canes colors in 2006, and one moment stands out in Ward’s mind as a prototypical Wesley moment. (more…)

On his blog over at CBC.ca, former Boston Bruins tough guy P.J. Stock, now a Canadian radio and television star, handed out his midseason awards.

Among his picks was Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas for the Vezina Trophy. And although he picked Alexander Ovechkin of Washington to win the Hart, Stock writes that he’d like to see Thomas win it when the season is all said and done.

Other love for Stock’s former team came in the Calder Trophy category, where Stock picked Anaheim’s Bobby Ryan but included Bruins winger Blake Wheeler among those he’d like to see win the award for the league’s top rookie.

MK: The Thomas-for-Hart notion is an interesting one, and one that hasn’t been heard too much. But now that he’s had to carry more of the load while Manny Fernandez struggles with injury, it’s not that far of a reach to think that Thomas is the most valuable player in the league.

The Boston Bruins will get a bit of a break tomorrow night when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes because veteran forward Justin Williams will not be available to play.

Carolina today announced in its Tracking the Storm blog that Williams suffered a broken bone in his hand Sunday in a win at Buffalo and will miss a month of action. Williams was struck by a shot by teammate Anton Babchuk. In 32 games, Williams has posted 3-7-10 totals. He missed the first 25 games of the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon. Against Boston this season, he potted one goal in three games.

In other ‘Canes news, there’s a chance defenseman Tim Gleason could return.

WILMINGTON, Mass. — Every team in every season goes through those dry spells where it seems the back of the net is as far away as Timbuktu and the goaltenders are the size of sumo wrestlers.

And every year on every team, at some point, the head coach has to make some line alterations to try and make the nets seem bigger and the goalies smaller. That seems to be what Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien’s apprach is going to be right now, as he attempts to break his team out of a four-game losing streak and some of his players from lengthy scoring slumps.

The major change at practice today, which figures to stay the same tomorrow night in Carolina, was Phil Kessel shifting to the right of David Krejci and Blake Wheeler switching to Marc Savard’s side. Krejci and Wheeler have played together almost all season, and Kessel and Savard haven’t been separated since late October.

“Just a little bit of a mix there. We haven’t been scoring as much as we’d like to lately. And you’ve got to kind of move guys around a little bit and see if that will spark things,” Julien said after his team’s hourlong on-ice session at Ristuccia Arena. “I think both players that kind of moved around – Wheeler or Kessel – those guys both bring the same sort of things to the lines. So it’s not like one line’s losing something over the other. It’s just a chance, and hopefully it’s a change for better things to come.”

Kessel’s scoreless run is the most glaring because he’s still the team’s leading goal-scorer with 24 and seemed to be emerging as the type of player that could carry the offense through bad times as recently as last month. But now he hasn’t scored since Jan. 3 — a stretch of 12 games.

If Kessel’s distressed. He doesn’t show it. In the locker room today he was smilely and optimistic that with all the chances he’s been getting, the goals are certain to come soon.

“I guess you’ve got to work out of it,” said Kessel, who most disappointingly could’ve ended the game in Nashville with a breakaway in the closing seconds Saturday but was thwarted by goaltender Pekka Rinne. “It’s not going to come … you can’t just sit around and think it’s going to get out of there. Hopefully, it comes soon enough.” (more…)

After he practiced with the club today at Ristuccia Arena wearing a red “no-contact” jersey and then was bag skated on his first day back, Ryder explained how he feared for the worst after he was high sticked by Ottawa’s Antoine Vermette Feb. 5.

“The last thing I expected, actually, was it to be a fracture after it was over. But I was just lucky it wasn’t my eye,” said Ryder after he caught his breath and had some water. “That was a major concern. I’ve seen a lot of guys get hit there and some guys get really bad damage. For me it was fortunate to just be a fracture and it can heal.” (more…)

One week after surgery to repair a facial fracture, Michael Ryder has rejoined the team for the first time. He’s wearing a full cage and a red “no-contact” jersey, but he’s out there.

Winger Chuck Kobasew, out since suffering an upper-body injury last Tuesday, is out there as well — skating with Patrice Bergeron and P.J. Axelsson like he had been before the injury.

While the Bergeron line is back together, two lines have been juggled for this practice — with Blake Wheeler joining Marc Savard and Milan Lucic, and Phil Kessel joining David Krejci and Vladimir Sobotka.

UPDATE: The Bruins are working on their power play (10:45 a.m.), and the old first unit is back together — with Bergeron at one point opposite Zdeno Chara and Kobasew, Axelsson and Savard up front. The other man-advantage group features Dennis Wideman, Andrew Ference, Krejci, Wheeler and Lucic. The last two games, the Bruins’ power-play units looked different, including Bergeron playing up front.

Ever since the tragic death of minor hockey player Don Sanderson earlier this year during an in-game fight, the fighting issue has been debated around the game of hockey as much as the U.S. economic stimulus plan.

While we’ve heard the opinions of people in the NHL upper offices, NHLPA head Paul Kelly and numerous NHL “enforcers,” few of the game’s biggest stars have spoken about the topic. And when you think about it, who’s affected more by the fighting than the game’s biggest stars? Fighters make sure opponents don’t take liberties with their team’s stars. And some stars even like to stick up for themselves once in a while.

One such player who has been known to drop the gloves in defense of himself or a teammate is Boston Bruins defensemen Zdeno Chara, whose occasional fisticufs haven’t prevented him from also playing at a Norris Trophy-caliber level this season and in years past. Chara’s beatdown of Atlanta’s Boris Valabik earlier this season was almost as memorable as some of his goals, assists and key defensive plays.

When it comes to fighting, and in particular the “staged” bouts that Kelly has talked about weeding out of the game, Chara think there’s a misconception.

“I don’t think it’s ever at a point where it’s staged fighting. Even if nobody’s hitting anybody, those guys are out there doing the toughest jobs in the NHL, and they either try to make a point or try to get momentum for their teams, change momentum from the other team to their team,” Chara told TheBruinsBlog.net earlier this week. (more…)

It was a rough week to be a member of the Boston Bruins. A team that was cruising along, even during the toughest portion of its schedule to date, Boston hit a bump in the road with an 0-2-1 week against San Jose, New Jersey and Nashville.

But I still have to pick a Bruin of the Week. And even though he tapered out in the shootout loss to Nashville Saturday with just one hit and no points, winger Milan Lucic had the best week of any individual wearing black and gold.

One of the few bright spots in the 5-2 loss to San Jose, Lucic potted both Boston goals and also threw five hits in what might’ve been his best game since returning from an upper-body injury late last month. Two nights later in New Jersey, he didn’t hit the scoreboard. But Lucic threw three more hits against a rugged Devils team.

Looking ahead, Lucic’s contributions will continue to be increased in importance as this week unfolds, with the Bruins playing three games all on the road — and probably continuing to do so down a top-nine forward or two.

Former Boston Bruins defenseman Mike O’Connell might be most famous for making one of the worst trades in NHL history when he dealt perennial All-Star Joe Thornton to San Jose as the Bruins’ general manager in Nov. 2005, but until last night he was also known for the league record for consecutive games with a goal by a defenseman.

Washington Capitals blueliner Mike Green, however, erased O’Connell from that record. Green scored during the Caps’ 5-1 win at Tampa Bay last night — extending his streak to eight straight games. O’Connell’s record of seven, set with Boston, had stood for 25 years.

The Boston Bruins could not contain David Legwand during regulation or the shootout in a 3-2 loss at Nashville tonight.

The veteran winger scored both of the Predators’ goals and then clinched it in the shootout with a backhander that beat Manny Fernandez and sent the water bottle flying. The Predators won the shootout, 2-1, with Blake Wheeler scoring the lone Boston goal.

Zdeno Chara’s goal with 1:16 left earned the Bruins an important point for the standings, but they’ve now lost four in a row for the first time this season.

Here are some other notes:

•Fernandez’s second start since his return from his back problem went fairly well. He made 29 saves, including a great stick save when the Bruins were down a goal. I think he played well enough to get the start Tuesday in Carolina, if for no other reason than to make sure he gets in a groove.

•Despite some golden opportunities, Patrice Bergeron and Phil Kessel continue to be in lengthy goal-less stretches. It might be time to flip the lines around a little bit and see what comes up.

•The Bruins’ power play continued to falter with four opportunities and no scores.

For the first time in weeks, the Boston Bruins will not be facing a team among the Eastern Conference’s elite (or even the West’s) or a team trying to impress a new coach. Nor will they be battling a team that plays in a hockey-mad city in front of rabid hockey fans.

But as they head into a clash with Nashville trying to stop just their second three-game losing streak of the season, the Bruins know they’ll still have a tough task on their hands. Led by a pair of solid goaltenders — Dan Ellis and Pekka Rinne — the Predators allow just 2.78 goals per game (13th in the NHL) and their penalty kill ranks fifth in the league overall and second at home. (more…)

NEWARK, N.J. — It probably won’t get him traded the way it did Joe Thornton back in Nov. 2005, but Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron lost a draw clean to John Madden tonight that led to the game-deciding goal.

The faceoff took place in the dot to the left of goaltender Tim Thomas, and the right-shooting Bergeron was just flat-out beat by the left-shooting Madden, who slid the puck to Bryce Salvadore for the lone goal in a 1-0 New Jersey win tonight at Prudential Center.

“He won it clean. You’ve got to try to tie him up. I wasn’t able to do it and that’s it,” said Bergeron after the game.

For the night Madden, who doesn’t even rank among the NHL’s top 30 faceoff men, was credited with seven faceoff wins in 11 chances. The Devils as a team, according to the official stats, won 58 percent of the faceoffs.

But head coach Claude Julien said he didn’t fault his club’s efforts at the dot or anywhere on the rink.

“I think our team battled well in all areas. I think we did a good job,” he said. “There’s not much I really can say about our hockey team tonight except for the fact that somehow we didn’t find a way to get the puck past him.”

Among the players who gave a monster effort was Bergeron, who fired seven shots on net without a goal. While he seemed to have a little extra jump in his step in his effort to break an alm0st-three-month scoring drought, he said he was playing at the same level he has since his return from a concussion a couple weeks ago.

“I felt the same. I felt good. I’ve been feeling good since I came back,” said Bergeron.

The center was also as positive about his team’s effort as his coach was.

“The way we showed up today is the way we’ve got to play, the way we’ve got to win, it’s the way we’ve been winning games,” Bergeron explained.

The Bruins have now dropped two of three to New Jersey this season, which makes the Devils the fourth team to beat the Bruins twice this season. Next time they play, March 22 at TD Banknorth Garden, Julien knows what his team has to do to get the necessary offense to prevail. Although the Devils do their best to deny the inside, the Bruins have to make it a point to get there at all costs.

“It’s just a matter of you’ve got to work; you’ve got to work to get there,” said Julien. “You can’t hold, you can’t clutch, you can’t grab, so we’ve got to work our way in there. And if you do that, then you probably force them to take more penalties — which I thought they might’ve had a few more tonight, but that’s another thing.”

NEWARK, N.J. — It was the equivalent of a Bugs Bunny change-up — the one that the batter can swing at three to four times without making contact.

Bryce Salvadore’s floater from the left point went through Boston Bruins forward Martins Karsums and beat goaltender Tim Thomas with 10:54 elapsed in the second period for the lone goal in a 1-0 New Jersey win at Prudential Center. Thomas wasn’t sure if the puck hit Karsums or not, the goaltender just knew that he flat-out missed it.

“After it cleared Karsums, I picked it up right away,” Thomas said after the game. “I lost it into him, but I had plenty of time. I just wanted to make sure that with my stick I put it in the corner. And I moved my stick just a little bit too fast and basically just fanned on it.” (more…)

NEWARK, N.J. — Scott Clemmensen’s second straight shutout and Bryce Salvadore’s second-period goal were too much for the Boston Bruins to overcome in 1-0 loss tonight to the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center.

The Bruins outshot the Devils, 31-18, so this loss — the Bruins’ second straight in regulation and third straight overall — was particularly frustrating. Patrice Bergeron actually led the team with seven shots on net, while Stephane Yelle fired five that Clemmensen stopped.